•Herdsmen to be organised into ranches
Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has decried the culture of waste foisted on the country due to lack of means to preserve agricultural produce even as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, promised that herdsmen would soon be organised into ranches.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said Buhari spoke while receiving the Global Chief Executive Officer of Friesland Campina, The Netherlands, Mr. Roelf Joosten, at State House, Abuja, yesterday.
The statement said the president lamented the situation in which cattle farmers threw away milk from their animals, because they had no means of preserving and processing the product.
“We have failed to develop our assets on a permanent basis. This, we are determined to work on,” the president promised.
He urged Friesland Campina, in its collaboration with Nigeria, to educate cattle farmers that “quality matters more than quantity,” and help them organise into cooperatives for better business.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ogbeh, who was also at the event, promised that herdsmen would soon be organised into ranches in the country, with special pasture and water, which would give better yield, and make the animals healthier.
He also disclosed that special flasks, which could preserve raw milk for up to six hours, would soon be made available, enabling cattle farmers to get the product to dairies in good quality.
Joosten disclosed that Friesland Campina is a cooperative owned by 19,000 farmers, and is 145 years old.
It began business in Nigeria in 1973 as Friesland Campina WAMCO Nigeria.
The company wants to partner with the federal government to build a healthier populace through better nutrition, collaborate in the school feeding programme, and promote dairy development in the country. It has also been providing nutrition support for internally displaced persons in the North-east.
Also on the delegation of the Global CEO was the Managing Director of Friesland Campina WAMCO, Mr. Rahul Colaco.
